Home lighting compatible with HomeKit thanks to Koogeek

HomeKit allows us to use a large number of devices to automate the most common tasks of our house, and among that huge list of accessories compatible with the Apple platform stand out above all those intended for lighting.

Koogeek offers several solutions to automate and control home lighting, adapting to every situation and need. A plug that allows you to control what you connect, an LED bulb with 16 million colors and a switch that allows you to control the lighting of a complete room. We have tried them and we show you on video.

WiFi connectivity to avoid range problems

All these Koogeek accessories have a peculiarity that makes them very interesting: they connect to your WiFi network and you don't need any kind of bridge to control them. This means on the one hand that there is no need to make any investment in another accessory that is the one that connects them to our central accessories, be it an Apple TV, iPad or HomePod, and that also will not matter how far they are from them, and what by connecting them to our home WiFi network, they will automatically be associated with our HomeKit central No need for other configurations.

Yes, only compatible with 2.4GHz networks, keep that in mind when configuring your router. WiFi connectivity also allows response times to be minimal, something that devices that connect via Bluetooth cannot boast. Since you press the power button on your iPhone or iPad, or give the order, the response time is immediate, without waiting.

Home or Koogeek Home application, you choose

Being compatible with the HomeKit platform has great advantages, and third-party applications integrate seamlessly into the system, and You can indifferently use the native iOS application or the manufacturer's own application. Koogeek Home, available on iTunes for free, offers us everything we can do with home and other additional functions, something that is usually common in manufacturers' own applications.

You won't have to worry about configuring the accessories with both applications: you configure them in one of them and they already appear in the rest. It is one of the advantages of how HomeKit is integrated, you can even control accessories with third-party applications, because by the simple fact of being compatible with HomeKit they use the same protocols and are perfectly compatible.

The automations that you do in one application will appear in the rest, no matter whether it is the Casa app, Koogeek Home or another HomeKit accessory brand. But as we said there are some functions that are exclusive to the native app like the information on electricity consumption that these accessories make. Both the plug and the bulb show us in the Koogeek application the current consumption they are making, as well as the cumulative one throughout each month, once they have collected enough information to do so.

Koogeek Home

SHENZHEN TOMTOP TECHNOLOGY CO., LTD.3

Free

Accessories that adapt to our needs

Smart bulbs are well known among all those who have started in the HomeKit world. Surely all those who read us and have already entered this world have a light bulb at home. The Koogeek bulb (thread E26 / E27) offers us a very contained consumption (8W equivalent to 60W of a conventional one) and has an intensity of 500 lumens adjustable through the application and Siri. With 16 million colors you should not worry if it is warmer or colder, because you can adjust it to your liking. The little ones enjoy the possibility of changing the color, or you can use it to create different environments in the living room. If someone wants to continue using the switch, they can do so, the bulb will turn off and on with a normal bulb. Of course, to be able to use it with HomeKit, the switch must be in the on position, otherwise it will not respond.

However, it is not always possible to change all the bulbs in a room, and not only because the investment can be high, but because it may be that the type of bulb we have in the room is not compatible. For these situations the use of the Koogeek switch is ideal. They have several models: single, double switch and intensity regulator. We have tested the simple switch, and its installation is very simple. I only had to add a neutral wire from the nearest registration box, something that takes five minutes. A very important detail: they are not valid for switches. A huge advantage of the switch is that even if someone does not want to use HomeKit, it can be used as a normal switch that turns on and off when pressed. The central LED lights green when it is on, unlike normal switches.

And what do we do if what we have is a lamp with several bulbs? The cheapest solution is without a doubt the Koogeek plug. It works very similar to the switch, and even It has a switch at the top with which we can activate and deactivate it manually, for those who resist using the iPhone, Apple Watch or HomePod to turn on the light. Like the bulb, it will offer us information about current consumption and the accumulated month to month from the Koogeek Home application.

Siri, automations, environments …

The possibilities we have with HomeKit are enormous. For example, I tell you the automations that I have added: when you get home, if it is night, the living room light comes on, and if we are at home and it is night, the living room light comes on. It is very simple to configure, as you can see in the image below in which the different configuration steps for these automations are shown. Imagine it and create your own.

Do you want to turn off all the lights at once? Create an environment so that when you go to bed all the lights go out, without having to go one by one. And if you want to use your voice, that's why you have Siri. From your Apple Watch, iPhone or iPad you can instruct the Apple assistant to turn on lights, turn off, adjust intensity or change the color of the bulb. And with the HomePod, as you can see in the video, although for now it must be in English, it is very comfortable to control your entire HomeKit.

Editor rating

With very affordable prices, turning the lighting of your whole house into “smart” is very easy thanks to Koogeek accessories. The configuration is very simple, available to anyone, either from the Apple House application or from the Koogeek Home application. The accessories take advantage of all the possibilities offered by Apple's HomeKit platform, with automations, environments, control via Siri, etc. Thanks to the WiFi conductivity, its response is very fast and there are no problems to be able to place them anywhere in the house, regardless of where you have the central accessories (iPad, Apple TV or HomePod). Thanks to the variety of accessories you can choose from a single bulb to a switch that regulates all of a room, or a plug for a lamp. The accessories are available on Amazon:

The best accessories for your iPhone

Are you looking for a new case for your iPhone? An accessory for the Apple Watch? Maybe a Bluetooth speaker? Do not miss these offers on accessories and get the most out of Apple's mobile:

iClever IC-WS03, a wooden...